


against the tide

by soulgraves



Category: Glee
Genre: Future Fic, Happy Ending, M/M, Not!Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 12:12:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3569240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soulgraves/pseuds/soulgraves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not!Fic. Blaine gets married and Sam searches for a fresh start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	against the tide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lesblams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesblams/gifts).



> Based on Sam's face in [this second gif](http://likeinyourfunnylittlebrains.tumblr.com/post/113582986504/tell-me-im-not-the-only-one-who-saw-exactly-that) and the one of his expression when Blaine walks down the aisle. [Sammie](http://dwyergates.tumblr.com/) left me an ask questioning Chord's motivations and we decided that the Obvious Conclusion was that Sam had finally realised he was in love with Blaine and it was too late, and then I went to send her a headcanon and instead ended up writing 7k of Sam future Not!Fic (the not!fic part is especially important). 
> 
> And since it's so long, here, enjoy!

So Sam's realized he's in love with Blaine but it's too late, and he tries to be his best bro but it's too hard, especially with Blaine and Kurt getting really into planning the rest of their lives out, and so when they move back to New York, Sam just...stops calling so much. He skips a couple of group meet-ups. He replies to texts a few days later. And he knows it's a dick move, but Blaine hasn't called him out on it - _no one's_ called him out on it, and doesn't that just scream at how little they know...or maybe it just means that he's also shut out Kitty and co. because they _would_ call him on it - but yeah. So they drift apart, and it seems easier.

Except Ohio still reminds him of high school, and the people that aren't there anymore, and it's not like he's sticking around for his family either, so one day he just packs up his car and drives.

He ends up taking his time, buying random CDs from bargain bins at rest stops and calling his parents every couple of days to check in but otherwise going radio silent. It's the most cathartic thing he's done in ages, and even though it gives him so much time with his own thoughts, it doesn't quite feel like the end of the world it did for a while there. He's not the first person to fall in love with someone who doesn't love him back, and he's _definitely_ not the first person to fall in love with their best friend. It majorly sucks but it happens, and life goes on. 

In the end, he stops to grab dinner in a small, coastal town someplace - the sort with a diner, and a proper post-office, and a couple of tourist shacks selling fancy seashells and plastic sunglasses, and no more than a thousand residents year 'round all in, and listens in to the locals' conversations about Ted's deck needing fixed, and the next town meeting about the end of summer fete, and it's nice. His waitress - Maggie, according to her name tag - brings him a slice of cherry pie on the house, offering him a motherly wink, and he repays the favor by offering to have a quick look at Bo, the short cook's, car when he mentions it's playing up. It's late when he's done, but there are wide smiles and baked goods piled on him, so he doesn't mind, and then Maggie's directing him to the local inn and saying to tell Bridget and Phil that she sent him.

The next morning he's driving out of town when he sees it, a small "for rent" sign, and he doesn't know why he does it but he follows the drive to find a small beach cottage, run-down and in desperate need of renovation, but it's painted this faded blue and you can see straight down to the water, and-- he calls the number on the sign and wanders around the property until a car trundles down to park behind his, and a guy in his seventies gets out, waving him over.

"I'm Eric," he says. "You must be Sam. This place was my brothers but he and his moved out of town years back now and I ended up left with it in the will, and, well, I'm not exactly fit to be fixing it up." He eyes him up a little, speculatively. "You got a job?"

"Not yet," Sam says, shrugging apologetically. "Honestly, I wasn't planning on stopping, but, I don't know, there's something about this place. Feels like home, you know? At least for a bit."

Eric grins and slaps a hand on his shoulder. "That's how it was for all of us, lad. Then it's fifty years later and you've still not left. I'll tell you what, you get this place back into shape and I'll hold off rent. Send me the bill for materials, and we'll talk about it again when it's done."

"You're serious?" Sam asks, eyes wide, and Eric laughs.

"You'd be doing me a favor," he says, and that's that.

And, well, it's Sam's _house_. The roof leaks and some of the floorboards need replaced, and the whole bathroom needs ripped out, but there's an original fireplace in the living room and a deck that runs down onto the sand, and it feels _right_.

He works room to room, ordering as much of the materials locally as he can and earning the good graces of a handful of local businesses that send down their youngest lads to help out from time to time. The morning after he finishes the kitchen, he wakes up early, makes a full breakfast, and takes it out onto the deck, watching the sunrise over the ocean, and feels really, truly at peace.

He thinks about his friends a lot, thinks about _Blaine_ a lot, and it's not like his feelings have faded, he's still in love with him, it just feels less tragic these days. It helps that the town have taken him under his wing; Maggie keeps him stocked up with sweets, and when she finds out he's a bit of a health junkie, starts looking up recipes for things with less sugar; Eric pops by to check up on him now and then and always makes sure to leave him with an invitation to dinner with he and his wife; Sam even joins the fete committee, and his enthusiasm seems to win over everyone. His family come out to see him for a weekend once the new bathroom's been put in and the place is at least habitable for the kids, and when they leave his dad tells him how relieved they are to know he's being looked after.

There's a dog that keeps coming around the beach in the mornings, and he asks around but no one claims him, so he leaves a note with Maxine, the vet, and buys some food from the store on his way home, just in case. A week later there's still no word, and when Sam finds the dog sleeping under the jetty a little ways a way, he persuades him to follow him back, drying him off with a towel and letting him eat his way through a bowl and a half of dried food, and feels his heart break a little when he curls up under his bed to sleep, looking nervous. Sam thinks about all the arguments Mercedes made for why they couldn't have a dog back then and how they don't apply anymore; how it's just him and a house and all the time in the world, and he promises himself he'll put up flyers again, just to make sure, but he's already calling him Shadow in his head and making a mental list of all the things he'll need to buy and whether Maxine will be free to check him out in the morning. 

When summer starts, tourists start trickling into town, and Maggie laughs at his look of horror the first time he sees a coach of old people drive through, promising him that they mostly just pop by for a day before moving on to the larger towns up the coast. It is nice to see the place come alive a bit more, and he ends up drawing a crowd of kids and their parents one morning when he's playing his guitar on his steps, laughing away the parents' comments about disturbing him and taking requests for Disney songs. Shadow's braver now, stretching down along Sam's side, letting the children pet him occasionally but mostly resting his head on Sam's thigh and soaking in the sun, running down to the water now and then. 

The annual fete comes and goes, with Sam helping Bridget and Phil bring chairs and folding tables down from the inn and judging the pie contest with enthusiasm, and it's only when he's painting the outside of the house a fresh coat of dusky blue that he realizes he's done. The house is finished, and he's been in town five months and hasn't spoken to anyone he went to high school with once.

"Well," Eric says, smile huge as he wanders slowly from room to room. " _Well_. This is the best this place has ever looked, I'll tell you that. You've done it proud, lad."

Sam rubs a hand across the back of his neck and takes the praise with pride, because he _has_ , he's poured himself into this house and it shows.

Eric's quiet for a while, and when he turns back, he hands Sam a piece of paper. "Sign on the dotted line, then," he says, and Sam thinks it's a rental agreement until he reads it properly, and then--

"You're _giving me the house?_ " he says, eyes wide, and Eric nods.

"Wasn't doing us much good just sitting here, falling to pieces. You brought it back to life."

When he's gone, paperwork ready to drop in to Carl, the local solicitor, first thing, Sam slides down the wall and sits staring into space until Shadow starts nosing at his cheek, thinking about how insane this is, how _amazing_ , and how five months ago he'd just happened to drive by this place, happened to stop, and if he didn't believe in fate before, he sure does now.

Without the house to take up his time, he starts looking for work, which is surprisingly easy; everyone needs an odd job done here or there, Bridget and Phil need someone to man reception Wednesdays and Fridays while they travel upstate to visit Phil's mom in her new care home, Maggie's youngest waitress, Bex, is getting ready to go away to college in the fall and wants to spend more time with her friends before then, so there are plenty of shifts going at the diner, and it's not the _career_ that high school had told him he should be searching for, but he's _happy_.

If he thinks about it, it's amazing that no one's mentioned his lack of love life in the whole time he's been here; it turns out they all thought he'd gone through a terrible break up that had led him to their door, and it's not the truth but it's close enough so he doesn't correct Maggie when she tells him. Still, it's been ages since he's been on a date, and he figures he may as well--

The first few go okay; they're all lovely girls, and the conversation is easy because they know most the same people and same places, but at the end of the night none of them seem too disappointed when Sam doesn't promise to call. He wonders if he's just out of practise, if he should give it more of a shot, and then he walks into his shift at the diner one day to find Maggie being lifted off the floor in a hug by a young guy with dark blond hair and faint stubble and thinks _oh_. 

"Sam!" Maggie says, still laughing. "Oh, Sam, you won't have met Danny. He went off to college and forgot all about us like the awful nephew he is. Danny, this is Sam Evans, and he is practically family and a sweetheart, so you be nice."

Danny grins and reaches out a hand for Sam to shake, and then Maggie's digging out old photo albums and showing him pictures of Danny when he dyed his hair blue at sixteen and when they made him dress up as a giant lobster for a beach party, all the while with Danny laughingly begging her to stop, and Sam--

Maybe it _is_ because it's been so long, but the attraction is pretty damn easy to identify.

"Where did you go to college?" he asks, when Maggie remembers she's supposed to be working.

"Boston," Danny says. "Photography major. You?"

"Oh," Sam says, shrugging, "I didn't go. Spent a year in New York, two back in Ohio, and then found myself here instead."

"You like it here?" Danny asks, and it's the easiest of all the questions he could have asked to answer.

"Love it," Sam says, meaning it totally. "It's home."

"It is," Danny says, looking happy. "I brought my ex back with me once and they called it _provincial_ which was a glaring sign that the relationship wasn't going to pan out. To be fair, he also hated movies made after nineteen forty five so I should have guessed earlier."

Sam tries not to react, laughs instead and lets hope bubble faintly away, until Danny says, "I don't suppose-- Do you want to maybe get a drink sometime? Like, a date?" and Sam's nodding, nervous and excited and terrified.

"Yeah," he says, "okay."

Dating Danny is easy; they're both pretty laid-back guys, and they have enough in common to make conversation flow, and enough separate interests to surprise each other. The attraction doesn't fade, and the first time it goes further than making out, Sam stutters, "I haven't, with a guy," and Danny grins and takes it slow, and it's the final puzzle piece slotting into place. 

No one in town seems fazed by their relationship - in fact Maggie seems _thrilled_ \- and life goes on only now Sam has someone to hang out with at the end of the day, someone to cook breakfast for and walk Shadow with and kiss in the ocean. Danny gets a couple of freelance jobs with travel and nature magazines and websites, which keeps him happy for now, though he talks about travelling the world one day, moving from country to country with a backpack and his camera, and Sam knows that day will probably come sooner rather than later but he's okay with that. 

After a few weeks, Danny asks him how he discovered his bisexuality, and Sam doesn't see the point in lying, so he tells him all of it, tells him about Blaine, about _Kurt_ and Blaine, and Danny nods and makes sympathetic noises and commiserates with stories of his first college crush, and they end up watching _My Best Friend's Wedding_ and laughing at torturing themselves, and it's _nice_.

A plot of land sells a couple of miles up the beach with plans for a small housing development, and Mick, one of the guys who Sam bought a lot of materials from back in the day, gets the contract and then calls Sam and asks him if he wants some more work. It's a couple of months, three days a week, and solid pay, and Sam's started saving for a rainy day, but this would help make that more of an actual nest egg, so he says yes immediately.

Danny starts taking jobs that require travelling more on the days he knows Sam's going to be on site, three day excursions to forests and oceans and then one down to South America that brings him back giddy, eyes bright and voice impassioned, and the sex that night is _amazing_ , and Sam laughs and tells him he should travel more if this is what happens.

It's only when the last of the houses goes up and Mick shakes his hand and says he'll give him a call next time a project comes 'round, that Sam realises it's been over a year since he showed up in town.

A year away from Ohio and his old life. 

A year and he's doing good.

The fete committee are starting to gather again, and Sam signs up immediately, bringing mini homemade fruit pies to the first meeting because he's been teaching himself to cook more than just the standard staple meals, and because it makes Eric's wife, Nancy, smile. 

The nicer the weather gets, the more people are out and about, and Sam ends up working at the diner most mornings before heading to the inn or to help Mick with his latest construction jobs. Danny's away more frequently, and Sam doesn't begrudge him a second of it, especially when he calls almost every night and always comes back just as happy to see Sam as he is to see the world. He goes to Kentucky for a week, spends time with his brother and sister and laughs when his mom tells him how grown up he is, what a wonderful young man he's become, and he misses them when he leaves but he thinks _it's good to be home_ the minute he walks through his front door, and he's never had that before.

Danny gets back from a week in the Rockies, and they stay up late looking through his photos and exchanging lazy kisses on the couch, waking up gone ten with a missed call from Maggie on Sam's phone telling him not to worry about missing his shift and to give her nephew her love. Sam blushes as he conveys the message, and Danny laughs and offers to make pancakes, and they fling open the back doors and wander out onto the deck in shorts and t-shirts, bare feet tangled under the table and Shadow yapping away happily as he runs between the ocean and back.

It's the sort of morning Sam wants to have forever.

And then there's a knock on the door.

Sam doesn't know who he's expecting - Nancy had mentioned popping by with some fete paperwork, but to be honest, people in town stop by all the time, and Sam loves it - but there's one person he can honestly, truly say he doesn't expect to see when he opens the door.

Blaine looks awkward, eyes wide and arms straight by his side like all his private school manners are kicking into play, and Sam stares at him for a good minute before either of them try to say anything.

"Hi," Sam says, because it's _Blaine_. Blaine is standing on his front stoop, wearing a polo shirt and linen shorts, gelled hair curling a little in the heat, and Sam doesn't know what to do or say or _think_.

"Hi," Blaine says, voice catching a little, and then Shadow's there, nosing around Sam's legs to see who's come to visit, and shaking with joy when Blaine reaches down to pat his head. "Hi," he says again, to Shadow this time.

"Do you want to come in?" Sam says, and Blaine nods and follows him through the hall and into the living room. "We're having breakfast if you want some," he offers, because Danny's still out on the deck and because he's a grown up now, not a scared seventeen year old.

"That'd be nice," Blaine says, "I've been driving a while."

There's a moment when they step outside, where Danny's head lifts and he smiles a polite, confused smile, where Blaine's eyes widen just a fraction like he's placing the scene, and Sam knows he should be panicking but--

But he's not.

"Danny, this is Blaine. Blaine, this is my boyfriend, Danny," he says, pouring orange juice into a spare glass. "Oh, and that's Shadow. If he starts sprinting at you from the sand, stand back. He's got into the habit of shaking out on the deck."

"That's because you can't tell him no," Danny says, grinning, and Sam laughs.

"It's true, he's a very spoilt dog and I regret nothing."

They all watch Shadow for a moment, and Sam lets it settle under his skin before he says, "So," and Blaine nods, hearing every question Sam doesn't need to ask.

"Kurt and I are divorced," he says, still staring out at the water. "The paperwork went through last week."

"Shit," Sam says, "I'm sorry."

Blaine shoots him a small smile, accepting the pancakes from Danny and sliding two onto his own plate. "I called your Mom. I'm sorry, I know it was-- But your number's changed and..."

"It's totally cool, dude," Sam says, "I'm sort of off the grid these days."

Blaine nods again, frowning a little, and Sam knows he's going to have to provide a whole list of his own explanations before the day's out, but for now it's one thing at a time. "I made it seem like I was just going to post you something. This town is beautiful. I mean, I only saw some of it as I drove through, but. Yeah."

"It is," Sam says, sharing a smile with Danny who leans back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.

"I should get ready to head out," Danny says, "I've got a meeting with the local council about the pictures for the new tourist brochures they want. It was nice meeting you, Blaine. You gonna stay for a bit?"

Blaine looks unsure, so Sam reaches out a hand to nudge his shoulder and says, "Dude, you should. There's a spare room, and Mags and Eric will kill me if I don't give you a proper tour of the town. Oh, and, hey, the beach picnic's this weekend, right?"

Danny nods. "You promised Nancy you'd bake cheese bread, don't forget."

Blaine's eyes are darting between them, but he smiles and agrees and they both say goodbye to Danny before Sam persuades him to wander into town.

He takes him street by street, pointing out where everyone lives and works and all the little anecdotes he's built up about the new people in his life, making sure the diner's the last stop on the tour so he can talk Blaine into one of Maggie's epic banana milkshakes.

Maggie grins at him when he walks in, sliding a burger across the counter to one of the few customers in at this time of day before walking over.

"If you've come to apologize, don't even think about it. That nephew of mine's been off gallivanting, I don't begrudge the two of you a morning in bed when he reappears." She winks, and Sam blushes even deeper than he usually would, aware of Blaine's presence the whole time.

"Mags, this is Blaine, a friend from high school. I'm showing him around."

"Well," Maggie says, "I can honestly say that any friend of our Sam's is welcome any time. You boys grab a seat and I'll get Bo to plate you up something good."

"You work here?" Blaine asks, and Sam nods.

"Sometimes. I do shifts here, a couple up at the inn, and a fair bit of construction work for one of the local guys. Mostly freelance. He took me on after I did up the house."

"Your house?" Blaine says, surprised, and Sam grins.

"I'll show you the 'before' pictures later."

They exchange small talk about Sam's life, stopping to chat with the other patrons now and then, and Sam smiles when Blaine's charm flares up, realizing suddenly just how _much_ he's missed him. In theory he knew that he had, of course he did, but it's different to be sitting here, to be looking at him _right there_ and feeling it like an ache through his whole body. 

He'd never stopped to think about whether he was still in love with Blaine. He'd met Danny, fallen in a different way, and assumed that that meant the old feelings had faded away with time and distance, or at least been put on a shelf somewhere at the back of his mind.

Apparently he's an idiot.

It's not actually that much of a surprise.

There's a message from Danny on his cell when they leave telling him he'll crash as his place tonight to give Sam and Blaine a chance to talk, and he'll be out of town until Friday afternoon on a shoot, but if Sam needs him to call any time. It's a reminder that he and Danny run on the same wavelength and it helps Sam relax.

When they get back, they take Shadow for a walk along the beach, and Blaine comments on how beautiful it is, how lucky Sam is to have this, and Sam agrees because he _is_. It's not until they're back and Shadow's fallen asleep under the kitchen table that they actually sit down, all distractions gone. 

"I don't know what to say," Blaine says, eventually, and Sam nods because he doesn't either.

"What happened with Kurt?" he says eventually, because they may as well begin there.

Blaine sighs. "Where do I start? We were like kids playing house. We both thought we wanted married life so much, and then reality set in and it was a _mess_. I thought we'd be less competitive once we were husbands, you know? I thought it would be about supporting each other, not getting jealous when the other succeeded at something first. I don't know _why_ because it was always our pattern."

Sam hums sceptically, and Blaine looks up.

"What?"

"Nothing," Sam says, because there's no point rocking the boat.

"No, go on, what?"

"That first time, in New York," Sam says, "that wasn't you getting competitive about not succeeding, that was you _depressed_. Kurt's always been the jealous type, whether it was you or Rachel or, hell, _me_ , he's always believed the world is harder for him, or that the world owes him something, and maybe it _is_ harder, I don't know, but you were never competitive with him. I mean, come on. You bent over backwards to make him happy all the time."

Blaine frowns and doesn't argue, but Sam knows he doesn't believe him because he still knows Blaine.

"It didn't matter anyway," Blaine continues. "We'd go days without seeing each other and when we did we'd try to have normal, romantic nights and end up screaming at each other instead. Kurt crashed with Rachel more often than not, I ended up with insomnia which was great for writing music and not so much for anything else, and then--"

"And then?" Sam prods gently, and Blaine looks down at his hands.

"There was a guy. I didn't cheat, I swear! It was just a guy I was working with on this play, but Kurt wasn't coming home at night and I wasn't sleeping so it was easy to stay late at the theatre going over things, and I guess my past indiscretions came back to haunt me again because Kurt lost it. Stormed in one night in a rage and accused me of all sorts of things, and I guess it was the last straw for me, too, because I said some awful stuff back. I mean, god, Sammy, I told him he was a self-entitled martyr. I think that was when I realized we weren't in love anymore, because we couldn't have said those things if we were."

"So you got a divorce," Sam says, keeping his voice as neutral as he can.

Blaine nods. "We tried talking it out, but by then we'd both started coming to our senses. I mean, we weren't kids any more, and we could either spend the rest of our lives trying to work at a relationship that should probably have ended when we were seventeen, or we could accept that we were barely in our twenties with the future open in front of us and if we cut ties now then there'd be nothing holding us back. God, that sounds so cynical, but we really did _try_ , I just wish I'd been brave enough earlier instead of being so scared of ending up alone, you know?"

"I never got that," Sam says, "you thinking you'd end up alone. I mean, I can name at least six people that were totally into you Senior Year. If you'd have told Sebastian to jump, he'd have asked 'how high', come on."

Blaine blushes, running a hand through his hair, and Sam leans closer, just a little, just for his own peace of mind.

"We separated a couple of months ago, but the paperwork takes time even without family and property. And then, I don't know, it was all finalized and New York suddenly felt suffocating and I had to get out, and I just. I really wanted to see you."

Sam feels the overwhelming urge to hug him, and he doesn't know why he's hesitating so he just reaches out and wraps his arms around Blaine's shoulders, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding when Blaine sinks into it, hanging on tight.

"I've missed you so much, Sam. _So much_."

"I've missed you too, B, god," Sam says, his words muffled in Blaine's hair, and _geez_ he still smells of raspberries and yes Sam's still in love with him, is pretty sure at this rate he always will be, but more than that he's missed his best friend.

"Why'd you leave me?" Blaine asks after a moment, voice so quiet it takes Sam a second to register it, and then it's like those early days all over again, his heart breaking in his chest.

"Blaine..."

"No, please, Sam, what was it? Did I do something wrong? Were Kurt and I super annoying after the wedding? Was it because I went to New York? Were you just bored of me? I spent ages trying to figure out why you were just _gone_ , Kurt used to get so irritated with me, talking about high school friends just drifting apart, but, I mean, it wasn't that, right? It couldn't be."

Sam wants to cry, wants to go back in time and punch himself in the face, and he knows that if he'd made different decisions back then he wouldn't be where he is today, but the last thing he's ever wanted to do is hurt Blaine, not since he was seventeen and sitting across from him in Breadstix talking about Cyclops and Wolverine. 

"It wasn't you," he says eventually, because he owes Blaine this, he knows that now. "I mean it _was_ , but it wasn't your fault. You got _married_ , Blaine, and it broke my heart."

Blaine's brow furrows as he finally looks up, eyes wet with tears. "Wha--?"

"I was in love with you," Sam says, "I was in love with you and you got married to someone else and moved away, and it was either stay in Ohio and in touch and be sad, or give myself a fresh start."

"Sam," Blaine says, eyes wide with awe. "Oh, _Sam_."

"It's okay," he says, "you didn't know. No one knew, and I don't think it would have mattered if they did. So I started driving and I ended up here and found this house and this life, and I'm happy."

"With Danny," Blaine says, and it's a statement more than a question but Sam hears it underneath.

"Yeah," he says, "with Danny. He's awesome. I mean, it won't last - he has _plans_ and I won't stand in the way - but it's like, every part of this town is linked and to love one bit is to love it all, you know?"

"It might last, Sam, you don't know--"

Sam smiles, affection flooding him. "I do know, and he knows, and it's okay. We've had a good run, and at some point we'll say goodbye and that'll be okay too, and we'll always remember each other at our best."

Blaine's still looking at Sam, and Sam lets him, lets him search for whatever it is he needs to find, and then hugs him again when he leans close, resting his head on Sam's shoulder.

"You were always the wisest of us," he says, and Sam laughs and doesn't disagree because he's learning that maybe, just maybe, it's true.

Blaine ends up falling asleep on the couch, so Sam just throws a blanket over him and ushers Shadow upstairs so he doesn't pounce on him in the night, and then spends two hours more staring at his bedroom ceiling wondering what games fate's playing now. 

In the morning, he wakes up to find Blaine making eggs, opening cupboard doors until he finds what he's looking for, coffee already in the pot, and stands in the doorway for a while just watching him until Shadow starts whining at the back door. 

They eat on the deck and neither of them mention the previous night's conversation, but something's changed, eased in Blaine's shoulders and Sam's conscience, and it's nostalgic and _new_ and Sam wonders how far his happiness can extend.

Nancy comes by before noon and ropes them both into helping set up for the picnic, has them driving all over town picking up tables and barbecues and blankets, and then Bridget asks them to watch the reception at the inn whilst she runs a few errands, and Sam finds it funny that besides the initial introductions, no one bats an eye at Blaine's presence. Blaine seems to find it confusing too, and Sam laughs and tells him that this town is full of mother hens and then ducks when Phil throws a towel from the laundry hamper he's lugging up the stairs at his head.

Danny calls Sam before dinner, and Sam takes the conversation out onto the beach and fills him in on what's been going on, throwing a stick for Shadow and spying on Blaine through the cottage window.

"He going to stay for a while, do you think?" Danny asks, and it's genuinely curious, no jealousy to be heard, and Sam thinks not for the first time that he found Danny at exactly the right time in his life.

"I think so," Sam says, "he hasn't said otherwise."

"That's good," Danny says, "he seemed like he needs cheering up. Besides, I'm away so much, it's nice knowing you won't get lonely."

"Have you _met_ your aunt?" Sam says, laughing. "Trust me, living in this town I'll never get the time to be lonely."

The beach picnic goes without a hitch, and the following week is full of clean up and organizing a letter campaign protesting a proposed Walmart nearby. He gets Bex, home on break, to cover his shifts at the inn for him, and Blaine tags along whenever he's working at the diner, sitting at the counter and exchanging embarrassing stories about him with Maggie like a traitor. Danny comes back midweek, and Blaine offers to babysit for Bo to give them some time to themselves, which Sam rolls his eyes at but takes anyway. 

They end up going to a drive-in movie the next town over, reclining their seats and throwing popcorn at each other to catch and making out during the previews, and it's nice and easy, and when Danny says, "So I was offered a job with National Geographic..." Sam laughs and punches him in the shoulder and tells him how proud he is and when does he leave and how many countries is he going to end up visiting and does he have a big enough backpack? Danny hugs him close, tells him how much he loves him and how much he's loved being with him and how this, right here, is always going to be how he remembers home, and Sam smiles and thanks him for being a part of making him whole. Sam's gone through plenty of break ups, but this isn't the same, doesn't feel like an ending so much, and maybe it's because they both knew it would happen from the start but Sam wouldn't change a thing about it.

Blaine's reading on the couch when he gets back to the cottage, Shadow asleep on his feet, and when he asks after Danny Sam tells him about the job and all the places he's already been asked to go, and Blaine asks when he'll be back, and Sam says he won't, and shuts down Blaine's sympathy before it can start, grinning as he closes his eyes, feeling the threads of nostalgia and not regretting a minute.

Word gets around town about Danny's new job, and no one asks about the break up but it's obvious they all know. Sam would be more annoyed except everyone but Maggie takes his declaration that he's more than fine and so proud of Danny to heart, and Maggie's mostly just sad that Sam's not going to legally be family; he tells her she'll always be his favorite aunt anyway, and she grins and wipes at her eyes and seems to cheer up after that.

Life goes on, except Blaine's still _there_ , and Sam won't pretend that doesn't make it better but the more time passes, the more he's aware that Blaine had a life in New York, too, and not just one involving Kurt.

Blaine bites his lip when he asks about it. "I mean, yeah. I still want to perform, I just...I like being here. With you."

Sam wonders if he'll spend every day of his life falling just a little more in love with Blaine.

Still, the thought stays with him, and seeing Blaine's excitement over getting involved with the local amateur production of _The Unexpected Guest_ only pushes it further along.

In the end he goes to Eric about it.

"Of course you'll keep the house," Eric says, "it's _yours_. Besides, I imagine you'll use it a lot more than you think." As he's leaving, he adds, "It's a good thing you're doing, Sam. That boy of yours is a lucky lad."

Blaine, of course, rejects the idea immediately. "Don't be stupid, Sam. I'm not letting you uplift your life for me! I'm _happy_ here, I don't need Broadway--"

"Except you do," Sam says, watching Blaine flail his arms around from his spot against the kitchen counter. "You're so talented Blaine, and more than that, you _love_ it. Besides, me coming with you is totally selfish. I'm not losing you again, I only just got you back."

Blaine's falters in his argument, staring at him with wide eyes. "Sam..."

"That whole being in love with you thing? It's a constant. So, New York. You do a run in whichever show's lucky enough to have you, and we come back here whenever you have a break."

Blaine seems speechless, too many questions forming on his lips before he gives up. "What will you do?" he says in the end.

Sam shrugs. "I was thinking about taking some architecture and design classes. I mean, I'm an artist and doing this house up's the best thing I've ever done, so."

Blaine's quiet for a minute. "But you love it here," he says eventually. "It's your home."

"It is," Sam says, nodding, "and I do. That's not going to change. But it's still going to be here. Eric's going to keep an eye on the place, and Bo's wife says she'll pop in and give it a dust once a week or so. Besides, I sort of want it to be _your_ home, too, and right now you've got too much still to achieve. We both do. The only thing is, we have to make sure we find somewhere with a yard for Shadow."

Blaine's still frozen on the spot, and then it's like the words register and suddenly he's _there_ , his arms flung around Sam's shoulders and his head pressed into the curve of Sam's neck, and he's saying, "I love you, I love you, god, Sammy, I love you so much, I've always loved you so much," and Sam tilts his chin up and kisses him, and it's easy to say that he should have done this years ago, but fate's been kind to him so far, and this right here? Maybe this is their time for a reason.

It's everything Sam thought it would be back when his heart was broken, everything he hasn't let himself think too much about since, and he thinks he's always known that Blaine's _it_ for him, somewhere deep down in that overly dramatic, high school glee club heart of his, but finally kissing him in the house he put together with his own two hands, in a place he knows will always welcome him back with open arms--

It's _home_.

They don't have sex that night, or the next night, or the next, are content just to pile up in a tangle of limbs on the couch and talk about everything and anything, totally honest in a way they'd both thought they'd been but realize they weren't, not before they tore this last boundary down.

Maggie comes by in tears when she learns they're leaving, and Sam has to reassure her three times that they'll be back, that they'll be here every holiday they can, and he'll be down even more than that probably, but it's not until Blaine says, "No matter what, this'll be it for us," voice drowning in earnestness the way only his can that she calms down, telling them how proud she is, and then tugging Sam close and telling him she means it when she says he's family and he mustn't ever forget that.

There ends up being a huge party for them down on the beach, everyone Sam's ever met bringing food and beer and sparklers, and he thought he'd be sad to go, but he's not, is just happy that he gets these people in his life. 

Later, Blaine cries a little for him, and Sam laughs and holds him close, and they finally tumble into bed with the intention of something other than sleep, and, _god_ , Sam's glad he hadn't known what he was missing before because now he does, he's never letting Blaine go.

He wakes up to find Blaine watching him with awed eyes, and he knows his own must be a fairly solid mirror. 

"I'm pretty sure you're everything good about the world, Sam Evans," Blaine says, and Sam tugs the sheets back over them and tackles him into the pillows.

"I don't know," he says, "you're not too bad yourself."

**Author's Note:**

> (And then they move to New York and Blaine has a successful time off and on Broadway and Sam gets a ton of qualifications in architectural design, and they go back to the beach cottage every chance they get, and when Blaine decides to take some time off of the stage and write his first album, they move back in more permanently, buying the lot next door to build a studio, and Sam becomes pretty successful, especially with his beachside buildings, and he gets to restore this amazing old lighthouse, and that inspires him to get more qualifications in classic restoration, and Blaine's album is a huge hit, and so they frequently end up on the road for one thing or another, but they hear from everyone back home all the time, and they live happily ever after, the end, wow I should never try and send headcanons, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS.)


End file.
